New HAHS football coach excited to to get started

JACQUELINE DORMER/Staff Photographer
Former Blue Mountain High School head football coach Mike Brennan was appointed head coach at Hazleton Area on Thursday. He replaces Jim Drumheller, who resigned after three seasons.

Hazleton Area fans are eager for Cougar football to return to its winning ways.

Mike Brennan is anxious to make that happen.

On Thursday, the Hazleton Area School Board unanimously voted Brennan in as the next varsity football coach at HAHS.

He replaces Jim Drumheller, who led the Cougars to an 8-22 record over the previous three seasons, including a 3-7 mark in 2013.

"I'm extremely excited," the 44-year-old Orwigsburg resident said after learning of the 9-0 vote, making him the sixth head football coach at Hazleton Area since the 1992 jointure.

"I think it's a sleeping giant," Brennan said of a Cougar football program that won its fifth District 2 Class 4A championship as recently as 2009. "I think it's a great place. They have great facilities. They made a great run just a few years ago.

"I know the guys who coached before me put the time in and the hours in the last few years, and

for some reason things just didn't work out. But those guys loved Hazleton Area football. A lot of them played here. And I saw the kids played hard for them," Brennan continued. "The guys that coached here and played here are relying on us to put a good product out there on the field. I want to maintain that Hazleton Area tradition."

Brennan comes to Hazleton Area with lofty credentials, having compiled a 113-62 career record in 13 seasons as the head coach at Nativity, Mount Carmel and Blue Mountain.

A 1988 Nativity graduate who played collegiately as an offensive lineman at Temple University, Brennan went 5-17 in two seasons at his alma mater before heading to Mount Carmel, where he guided the Red Tornadoes to a pair of PIAA Class AA state championship in 2000 and 2002.

Brennan coached the Pennsylvania All-Stars in the 2012 Big 33 Football Classic. He was also a Big 33 assistant coach in 2006 and an assistant coach for the East squad in the 2005 PSFCA East-West Game.

Hazleton Area fans are hoping he is the man to bring the Cougar program back to championship form. The Cougars' last winning season was 2009, when they went 8-4 and captured their fifth and final District 2 4A championship under Rocco Petrone.

Hazleton Area has gone 11-29 since Petrone retired after that 2009 championship to focus on his administrative duties as high school principal.

Brennan was actually the leading candidate to replace Petrone following a nine-year run that saw the Cougars go 83-31, win five district titles and reach the 2007 District 2-4-11 Class 4A subregional final. However, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration and Paul Marranca stepped forward and coached the Cougars for the 2010 season, going 3-7.

"It just sort of worked out that way," Brennan said. "It was the right job but the wrong time, and obviously it wasn't the right time."

After Marranca resigned due to health reasons after one season, long-time Cougar assistant Drumheller took over in 2011, and coached the next three seasons before resigning himself late last month.

Brennan coached Blue Mountain to a 22-21 mark from 2010-12. He did not coach at all in 2013.

"Last year was just what the doctor ordered," he said. "I took last year off, did some television, and I enjoyed that. But when you come home after the game, that's it. It's over. I enjoyed the time with my family, but there was no doubt in my mind, and in my wife's mind, that it was time.

"At my age and with my experience, I think the time is right," Brennan said. "For some reason I think I'm supposed to be here at Hazleton Area."

Brennan inherits a team that lost 21 seniors, but returns a handful of key players including 1,000-yard rusher Zach Zukoski and starting quarterback Ryan Heller.

"We'll probably lose 21 seniors every year," Brennan said, not wanting to hear the word "rebuild." "I know (the seniors) did a lot for this program, and some of them are going on to play college football. The upside of that is we can sort of develop from scratch.

"My first year at Mount Carmel we only had two starters back and we went 14-1 and won the state championship. Of course, one of them was (all-state running back) Jon Veach, he helped. But it was the same situation. We want it taught the way we want it taught. If you keep it simple enough and streamlined enough, it will work.

"I don't want to hear why we can't do this and why we can't do that," he continued. "It starts with what their conduct is on and off the practice field, what their conduct is in the classroom. They're going to need to work with us, and that's what I'm going to tell them. It's not going to be easy. It's never easy."

Brennan said the first orders of business are to meet with the kids, form a coaching staff and hit the weight room.

"There's no question I'm ready to go," he said, "I'm a passionate guy, hard-working. I'll coach hard, and I'll probably love them up even harder. That's just the way I've always been. But no one person can do it alone. We want to be able to make it a total school and a total community effort if we're going to turn this back around."

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